For the second time, and for the first time since 1998, Canada won the gold medals at the IIHF InLine Hockey World Championship after defeating Germany on the opponent’s soil in Ingolstadt 9-5.

Max Grassi continued his scoring streak with four goals and five points. Thomas Woods had a hat trick and four points.

“You always think about winning a gold medal, but when you actually do it, it’s the best feeling in the world. It’s the greatest thing that has ever happened to me in my life and I’m sure it’s the same for lots of guys in this room,” Grassi said with the gold medal around his neck.

“I had so much energy, so much excitement to play in this game. You know how to do it and it came all together tonight. I have to give a lot of credit to my teammates, who gave me passes and helped me out.”

Germany tried hard to compete and outshot their rival 40-27, but the Canadians were simply more dangerous in the offensive zone.

“We just wanted it more from the beginning,” Woods said about the reasons for the strong performance on the last day. “We said the chips are in line for us and we had a favourable way through the tournament. We said we would do anything to win this final game and we did. The guys stepped up with Max and me both putting the pucks in the net.”

The 4,575 fans in the sold-out Saturn Arena were enthusiastic, but Grassi silenced the crowd for a moment when scoring on a breakaway after just 37 seconds of play.

At 7:15 the Canadian players were cheering again as Woods capitalized on a power play with a shot from the far end of the face-off circle. One-and-a-half minutes later it was Josh Foote, who outskated the German defence before beating German goalkeeper Jochen Vollmer.

Thomas Greilinger brought back hope one minute later when he hammered the puck in from the face-off circle on Germany’s first man advantage.

The Germans attempted to come back, but at 7:26 of the second period it got worse for the host nation when Dave Hammond sent off a diagonal pass to the crease, which Woods converted for the 4-1 goal. But at 8:56 Michael Wolf scored Germany’s second power-play goal with a slap shot.

The local fans had reason to dream again about a comeback win, but with five seconds left before the half-time break, Grassi skated around German defenceman Patrick Seifert to beat Vollmer for the 5-2 goal.

The teams recovered in the intermission, but the direction didn’t change after. At 2:05 of the third period the Canadians extended the lead with Hammond’s goal, but 40 seconds later Patrick Buzas replied for the Germans.

At 4:47 Germany scored again when Felix Schütz converted a pass from behind the net for the 6-4 goal. And at 6:25 the fans celebrated another goal when Wolf capitalized on a rebound, but only eight seconds later Grassi restored Canada’s two-goal lead. With 54 seconds left in the third period Woods made it 8-5 by beating Vollmer with a shot to the near side of the net.

“Both teams had a lot of energy. Both teams had a long way to get here,” said Grassi. “It just came down to sticking together as a team and sticking to our game. They made it close for a while. We got worried, but we stuck to our game and it worked out well.”

Grassi escaped in the fourth period to score his fourth goal as Canada’s world title was coming closer and closer while the fans were celebrating their team and the exciting game with chants all around the arena.

It remained 9-5 for Canada and the players started their loud celebration for Canada’s first inline hockey world title in 14 years.

“It’s indescribable. I’ve never felt this feeling,” said Woods. “I played four years with probably half of the team. The combination of our hard work and everything in the off-season, like finding sponsors, paying for our trips. It’s unbelievable, I can’t even describe it.”

Germany lost the game, but won its first ever silver medals in inline hockey. It was a great accomplishment by Canada, but also for the runner-up, which will host the IIHF InLine Hockey World Championship again next year, in Dresden.

Finland won its first medal in inline hockey since 2007 after defeating Slovenia 9-4 in a heated bronze medal game.

Slovenia’s Matic Podlipnik was the first to score a goal at 3:30, but the Finns reacted and built up the score in the 20 minutes that followed.

Teemu Suhonen tied it up after one minute after a pass from Sami Markkanen, and 19 seconds later Juho Joki-Erkkila brought Finland the lead.

Finland scored three more unanswered goals in the second period. At 3:59 Jesse Saarinen made it 3-1 after a pass from the other side and 41 seconds later Tommi Huhtala deked Slovenian goalie Gasper Kroselj to extend the lead.

At 9:52 Kristian Kuusela scored after a pass from behind the net from Ossi Pellinen.

With 36 seconds left before half-time, Ales Remar capitalized on a power play, but the three-goal deficit after two periods proved to be too high.

Finland continued its massive attack in the third period with Pellinen and Huhtala extending the lead. Huhtala’s hat trick goal and Lasse Lappalainen made it a seven-goal gap before Domen Vedlin and Podlipnik scored two Slovenian goals for the final 9-4 score.

TOP DIVISION – Relegation Game

Sweden vs. Great Britain 7-2 (1-0, 2-0, 3-2, 1-0)

Click here for the highlights of the game.

Sweden came to win inline gold, but had to play against the relegation threat. After three straight losses the Swedes fulfilled their last task and defeated Great Britain 7-2 to send the British down to Division I.

The Swedes were clearly the better team and built up a 3-0 lead before the half-time break to extend it in the second half of the game.

Marcus Nilsson scored a hat trick for Tre Kronor and Carl Berglund netted two goals. The other markers came from Dick Axelsson and Pontus Larsson.

DIVISION I – Gold Medal Game

Slovakia vs. Hungary 5-4 (1-1, 4-1, 0-2, 0-0)

Click here for the highlights of the game.

Slovakia won a tight gold medal clash for the Division I title and promotion to next year’s Top Division, 5-4 against Hungary.

The Slovaks decided the game thanks to a strong second period they won 4-1.

“It’s fantastic. It was our goal and we were the best team over the course of tournament,” said Slovak forward Filip Novak. “It was a little bit tight in the end, but that’s hockey.”

Marcel Holovic opened the scoring in the first period, but Attila Rafaj replied for Hungary.

In the second period Tomas Jasko regained the lead after only 14 seconds with a high shot from the face-off dot. Roman Simunek made it 3-1 two minutes later and at 3:05 Juraj Prokop scored after receiving a centering pass.

Arnold Feil scored for Hungary at 5:55, but at 9:32 Novak restored the three-goal lead for Slovakia on a man advantage.

Hungary changed goalkeepers after the half-time break, and Tamas Lencses converted a man advantage taken over from the second period to cut the lead.

At 9:22 of the third period Attila Orban capitalized a breakaway for the 5-4 goal. There were almost 15 minutes left for Hungary to tie the score and the Magyars tried hard, but Slovak goalkeeper Roman Hrusovsky kept his net clean for the remainder of the game.

For Slovakia it will be a quick return to the Top Division after having been relegated one year ago.

DIVISION I – Bronze Medal Game

Austria vs. Croatia 7-6 (1-3, 3-1, 1-1, 1-1, 1-0) OT

Austria secured the Division I bronze medals in a 7-6 overtime win over Croatia.

For the Croats it was a tough loss as they outshoot Germany 47-37 and blew a two-goal lead.

Austria took the lead for the first time in the fourth period when Harry Lange made it 6-5 at 6:22, but Marko Lovrencic tied it with 53 seconds left in regulation time.

The Croats were weakened by a tripping minor against Tomislav Cunko with 20 seconds left in regulation time. Austria almost played the entire extra period with a man advantage and ten seconds after the penalty had expired, Philipp Winzig scored the game-winning goal.

DIVISION I – 5th-Place Game

Australia vs. Japan 7-3 (1-0, 2-1, 2-1, 2-1)

One day after both Australia and Japan managed to maintain in Division I the teams met for a fifth-place game.

The Australians succeeded and won each of the four periods for the final score of 7-3. Jonathon Bremner and Jordan Gavin each scored a hat trick.

MARTIN MERK]]>InLineinline201210 Japan18 SwedenAustraliaGreat Britain01 Austria16 SlovakiaCroatiaHungaryThu, 07 Jun 2012 20:00:00 +0200Bauer joins inline hockeyhttp://www.iihf.com/channels1112/inline/news/news-singleview-inline/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=7034
New World Championship sponsorship deal reachedPending formal approval, Bauer will become the Official Main Sponsor of the event – both for the Top Division and the Division I tournament. The deal includes but is not limited to representation at the boards of the venues, in the live stream and product presentation at the arena.

“Our partnership with Bauer is an essential step to improve the funding of the IIHF’s inline hockey program,” said IIHF Life Member Hans Dobida, who is the Chairman of the 2012 IIHF InLine Hockey World Championship. “We are extremely excited that Bauer joins us for this prestigious event.”

“Mission Bauer Roller Hockey is proud to enter this three-year partnership with the IIHF in an effort to continue the growth and global recognition of inline hockey,” said Sean Riley, Bauer Hockey’s Brand Director - Roller Hockey. “The strength of both the IIHF and Mission Bauer can only open better opportunities for the sport of inline hockey. This is only the beginning of what will be a great relationship.”

Bauer Hockey will provide financial as well as product support for the IIHF InLine Hockey World Championship and will also contribute to the live streaming of the event that started this year with 24 games that were broadcast live from Ingolstadt.

“The new contract is a first big step into the right direction for inline hockey and the market has indicated that there is more to follow. I am happy because the game deserves this,” said Rob van Rijswijk, IIHF Director of Inline Hockey. “The new partnership will also help increase the exposure of the IIHF InLine Hockey World Championship and to further develop the sport while providing an attractive platform for the Bauer and Mission products for participants and visitors of the event.”

The 2013 IIHF InLine Hockey World Championship will take place in Dresden, Germany, 2-8 June 2013. The 2014 IIHF InLine Hockey World Championship will be staged in Pardubice, Czech Republic where it was successfully hosted last year.

]]>on leftIIHFInLineinline2012on righton rightinline2013Thu, 07 Jun 2012 19:59:00 +0200“The tournament is anyone’s”http://www.iihf.com/channels1112/inline/news/news-singleview-inline/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=7033
Max Grassi wants to take inline hockey gold to CanadaTalking about hockey is quite common in Canada, but few people would think about a sport played with rollerblades on a court instead of using skates on an ice surface.

But especially at the mild West Coast, there’s a big community of players who want to use their hockey sticks also in summer and cultivate the sport.

Max Grassi, one of Canada’s top inline hockey players, is one of them. The Vancouver native grew up playing ice hockey as many others and is still doing so for the University of British Columbia which hosted the women’s ice hockey tournament of the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.

Canada was quite successful in inline hockey in the late ‘90s when the first InLine Hockey World Championships were organized, but has fallen off as of late.

For the last few years the National Inline Hockey Association in partnership with Hockey Canada have tried to bring Canada back on the map. And after last year’s bronze medal win, Team Canada strives for even more.

“After the quarter-finals and those upsets that happened, we kind of knew as a team that this tournament is anyone’s,” said Grassi after his two-goal performance in Canada’s semi-final win over Slovenia.

“We’re looking forward to this gold medal game and we’re giving everything to win this gold medal.”

For Canada it’s the fifth tournament after rejoining the competition. And Grassi thinks it’s the experience that has made Canada stronger year by year.

“We have one more year and I think we know the pace from last year from the semi-final we had against the U.S. We know how it felt to lose that game and we didn’t want to feel it again,” the forward said after defeating Slovenia 5-3 in the semi-final. “And here we are playing for the gold and it feels great. We’re not going to be satisfied until we win that.”

Playing in the final is also a chance to make the sport better known across the country, especially as all Canadian games have been streamed live on IIHF.com including today’s gold medal game against Germany that starts at 19:00 local time (1pm EDT, 10am PDT).

“Obviously ice hockey is the main sport in Canada, but inline hockey is growing there,” said Grassi. “For us to be playing in this gold medal game is going to get the sport out there in Canada. People are going to start hearing about it and I think it’s going to be more and more popular.”

“In hockey there’s passion over there for any kind of hockey and we’re going to make the best out of it.”

The Canadians succeeded at this tournament with powerful hockey, a compact team and toughness within its boundaries.

Despite physical play, the Canadians managed to take an average number of penalties while being the most efficient team on the man advantage. 56 per cent of Canada’s power plays ended with a goal. But in Germany they will face the strongest team on the box play. The host nation killed off 80 per cent of the penalties.

“They have a great crowd behind them,” Grassi said about the opponent. “You never know what they can do. I think they’ve shown in this tournament that they’re capable of winning this. We played them once and we know that it’s difficult meeting them.”

In a few hours we will know more when the puck will be dropped for this year’s gold medal game. In the preliminary round it was a head-to-head race with two goals from Grassi that Canada won 4-3 thanks to the game-winner with 13 seconds left in regulation time.

MARTIN MERK]]>on topInLineinline2012on top03 Canadaon lefton lefton rightThu, 07 Jun 2012 15:31:00 +0200Schütz shoots, Schütz scoreshttp://www.iihf.com/channels1112/inline/news/news-singleview-inline/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=7031
German semi-final hero looking forward to clash vs. CanadaGoalkeeper Jochen Vollmer was one of them. He saved 34 out of 36 shots in his best game of the tournament.

Felix Schütz was another.

His name derives from the German word “Schütze” according to popular belief. It usually means shooter in general, or Sagittarius for those who are into astrology. In sports it can also mean goal scorer. And that’s exactly what Schütz did the day before the gold medal game…score goals.

Originally in the third line, he was promoted to play more shifts in the last period and perfectly gelled with second-line forward Patrick Buzas, who fed him with two nice passes as Schütz scored both the game-tying and game-winning goal in the 3-2 semi-final victory over Finland.

“I’ve known him for many years. We’ve played together ice hockey in Ingolstadt. He made two nice assists that made it easy for me to score,” Schütz said.

“I heard we had never made it to the final before. It’s great. We gel well together, we have fun and now we want to win again,” he added.

It’s a perfect tournament for the 24-year-old, who represented his country in four IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships, most recently last month in Stockholm. In 2010, when Germany sensationally reached fourth place on home ice, he was selected as one of the best three players of the team by head coach Uwe Krupp.

Until this year, he hadn’t played inline hockey at the international stage before.

Schütz was born not far away from Ingolstadt in Erding and developed in several German clubs before trying his skills in North America, where he played two years in the QMJHL (Saint John, Val-d’Or) before signing with the Buffalo Sabres. In the Sabres organization he played two years for the AHL’s Portland Pirates before going back to Europe.

He returned to Germany where he played for Ingolstadt before transferring to Cologne in October.

In his native region of Bavaria not only ice hockey is popular, but many players also enjoy switching skates for rollerblades in the summer months.

“Inline hockey is fun and I also play in the league. We founded a team in Erding where I come from and I’ve been playing there for two years,” Schütz said. “It’s fun, it’s similar to ice hockey and we have a great atmosphere in our team.”

“I’m living not far away from Ingolstadt and was asked if I wanted to join,” Schütz said. And he immediately accepted the invitation.

Today at 19:00 at the Saturn Arena, which is expected to be sold out, the Germans will face Canada in their first-ever gold medal game. This game as well as three others today will be streamed live and for free on IIHF.com.

“They’re big. You can’t play too much of a body-contact game compared to the ice hockey rules, but they play hard. They’re not in the final for nothing. We have to be ready,” Schütz said.

In the preliminary round Canada won the clash between the two teams thanks to Dave Hammond’s game-winning goal 13 seconds before the end of regulation time.

“In the final it will be a totally different game that can’t be compared to the preliminary round,” Schütz said. “Everybody will be at a maximum emotional level and then it will be small details that can decide. Hopefully luck will be on our side.”

Germany edged Finland 3-2 in the semi-finals to play in the gold medal game of the IIHF InLine Hockey World Championship for the first time after having won four bronze medals in the past.

Goalkeeper Jochen Vollmer had a 34-save performance as Finland outshot the Germans 36-30 while Felix Schütz scored the last two goals for Germany.

“I heard we had never made it to the final before. It’s great we did it,” said Schütz. “We gel well together, we have fun and now we want to win again.”

Finland scored the first goal after two minutes of play when Tommi Huhtala scored with a point shot on the first power play of the game. But with 32 seconds left in the first period the Germans also capitalized on a man advantage with Thomas Greilinger’s slap shot from the face-off circle.

With 1:55 remaining in the second period Teemu Suhonen skated around the German defence on the right side before beating Vollmer with a shot from a short angle to regain the lead.

Then came Schütz’s minutes after a scoreless third period.

At 1:43 of the fourth period he tied the game after Patrick Buzas had fed him with a pass from behind the net.

Euphoria was back in Ingolstadt’s Saturn Arena that was crowded with 3,217 enthusiastic fans. And only two minutes later it was the same line that caused danger in the Finnish zone for a while until Schütz scored again after a pass to the crease from Buzas.

“We changed the line for the end of the game with Buzas and me,” Schütz said. “I’ve known him for many years. We’ve played together ice hockey in Ingolstadt. He made two nice assists that made it easy for me to score.”

It was Germany’s first lead in the game, and it was there to stay. The Finns tried to come back, but the German defence and goalkeeper Vollmer remained persistent while the Germans missed on two counter-attacks.

Defenceman Sami Markkanen had the biggest scoring chance with 37 seconds remaining when his distance shot hit the far goal post and Vollmer’s back, but the goalkeeper got the puck under control.

Finland took a time-out and pulled the goalie and Markkanen had a last shot with two seconds left, but Germany’s one-goal lead remained. It will be Canada vs. Germany for gold.

Canada vs. Slovenia 5-3 (2-1, 0-1, 2-1, 1-0)

Click here for the highlights of the game.

Canada will play in the final for the first time since winning its only inline hockey gold in 1998 after edging a pesky Slovenian team 5-3 in the semi-finals.

Max Grassi scored two early goals, but the Slovenes came back and kept the game open until the last minute.

“We know how it felt to lose that game [from last year] and we didn’t want to feel it again. And here we are playing for the gold and it feels great,” Grassi said.

“After the quarter-finals and those upsets that happened we kind of knew as a team that this tournament is anyone’s. We’re looking forward to this gold medal game and we’re giving everything to win this gold medal.”

Grassi opened the scoring after just 20 seconds when he carried the puck between Matic Kralj and Jan Loboda and continued his attack with the first goal of the game.

At 3:27 it was again Grassi, who made his way towards the Slovenian net to shove the puck through Slovenian goalie Gasper Kroselj’s five-hole on a power play.

Five minutes later the Slovenes capitalized on their first power play when Matevz Erman scored on a rebound. Rok Ticar tied it up at 1:32 of the second period with a shot from the face-off circle.

Canada regained the lead in the third period. First Adam Ross scored 47 seconds after the half-time break and at 9:01 David Hammond made it 4-2 after tic-tac-toe passing from behind the opponent’s net to the right and to the left side where Hammond netted the puck.

In the fourth quarter of the game the Slovenes were the dominant force, but they neither capitalized on their 13 shots on goal, nor on three man advantages.

With 29 seconds left to play Kirk French scored the 5-3 goal into the empty net.

TOP DIVISION – Placement Games (5-8)

USA vs. Great Britain 18-1 (5-0, 5-1, 5-0, 3-0)

Click here for the highlights of the game.

Team USA had to play in the placement games after surprisingly losing the quarter-final game to Finland. The Americans torpedoed Great Britain 18-1 to avoid relegation. The tournament ends in fifth place for the U.S. while Great Britain will play the relegation game against Sweden tomorrow.

The British withstood the pressure in the beginning, but at 6:48 Team USA capitalized on its second power play with a goal from Travis Noe. 13 seconds later Shawn Gawrys made it 2-0 and after the 5-0 period score there were no doubts left about the eventual winner.

Noe scored five goals and had an assist while his linemate Jose “Junior” Cadiz had two goals and five assists for seven points. Stephen Campbell scored a hat trick while the defencemen Gregory Thompson and Anthony Miner each netted two goals.

Sweden vs. Czech Republic 4-5 (0-1, 2-2, 2-1, 0-0, 0-0, 0-1) PS

Click here for the highlight video of the game.

Two former world champions had to play each other in a placement game to avoid relegation. The lead went back and forth and in the end it was the Czechs who prevailed in a shootout to end the tournament in sixth place while Sweden has to play tomorrow’s relegation game against Great Britain.

The Czechs took the lead with a goal from Jan Besser in the first period, but Sweden scored two goals for the 2-1 lead in the second period.

The Czechs replied with goals from Patrik Sebek and Martin Vozdecky in the last minute before half-time to reclaim the lead, 3-2.

Sweden came out strong for the third quarter. Daniel Wessner tied it up with a power-play goal at 5:18 and one minute later his offensive partner Dick Axelsson regained the lead for Sweden. But again one minute later Marek Loskot tied it up for the Czechs.

After a scoreless fourth period and extra time the Czechs won the game in the penalty shootout:

Slovakia reached the gold medal game of the Division I tournament in the team’s attempt to get back to the Top Division. The Slovaks defeated Croatia 5-3.

Marek Priechodsky and Tomas Jasko built up a 2-0 lead for Slovakia after ten minutes of play, but Croatia kept the game close and 67 seconds into the fourth period Mario Novak even tied the score with his second goal of the night, 3-3.

The Croatian dreams of an upset were shattered four minutes later when Marcel Holovic capitalized on a Slovak power play and with 38 seconds remaining in regulation time Filip Novak scored into the empty net.

Hungary vs. Austria 5-2 (0-1, 3-0, 0-1, 2-0)

Hungary made it again to the final thanks to a semi-final win over Austria, 5-2.

Daniel Oberkofler opened the scoring for Austria at 8:16, but Hungary scored three unanswered second-period goals by Arnold Feil, Tamas Pilcsik and Zoltan Revak.

Austria cut Hungary’s lead with Diethard Winzig’s power-play goal in the third period, but they didn’t come closer than one goal. Revak sealed the win with his second goal at 5:49 of the fourth period and Feil also scored his second goal with 70 seconds while Austria had its goalie pulled.

Hungarian netminder Tamas Kiss had 29 saves as his team outshot Austria 35-31.

DIVISION I – Placement Games (5-8)

Australia vs. Bulgaria 16-4 (4-2, 2-0, 6-2, 4-0)

Australia stays in Division I for next year after steamrollering Bulgaria 16-4. Bulgaria will have to go through a qualification event again to make its way back for the 2013 IIHF InLine Hockey World Championship.

New Zealand blanked Japan 5-0 in the preliminary round, but in the deciding game to avoid relegation it was the Japanese who edged New Zealand 3-2. The result means that Japan maintains in the Division I thanks to its first win after four straight losses while New Zealand has to go back to one of the two qualification tournaments.

Although New Zealand outshot the Asians 32-22, they hardly found the means to beat Shingo Imagawa, who had 30 saves.

Japan was more efficient. Daisuke Ohto capitalized on the first power play of the game at 10:06. At 4:20 of the second period Hikaru Kawaguchi extended the lead and Ohto’s second goal 42 seconds after the half-time break made it 3-0 for Japan.

New Zealand cut the lead with two power-play goals by Alexander Novak and Zachary Beardman, but it proved not enough to change the outcome.

MARTIN MERK

]]>InLineinline2012on top04 Czech Republic18 Sweden20 United StatesGreat Britain10 JapanAustraliaBulgariaWed, 06 Jun 2012 19:55:00 +0200Globetrotters enjoy experiencehttp://www.iihf.com/channels1112/inline/news/news-singleview-inline/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=7025
New Zealanders show what they can do at other end of worldThis year the teams outside of Europe and North America are Australia, Japan and New Zealand. In the previous years there were also teams from Argentina, Brazil, Namibia and South Africa. But it’s the New Zealanders who have to come from farthest away.

Nobody knows that better than Team Leader Robert Henry, who arrived in Germany suffering from a case of thrombosis after two days of travel.

“We came to Australia, to Dubai and Munich, and from there by bus,” Henry said. “Our flying time was about 26 hours plus stopovers, so it takes us 30 hours plus to get here.

“It’s a different time zone, a different hemisphere. It’s not easy. It has some influence, but we came a bit earlier, we make sure the players are rested, we don’t go out in the night apart from the festival we went with the German team before the tournament.”

And for the Kiwis it’s worth it. “It’s a great tournament and we love to be here,” Henry said.

While ice hockey has its roots in the chillier south of the country, inline hockey is more popular in the northern island with cities like Auckland and Wellington.

The New Zealand Inline Hockey Association counts roughly 2,000 players and 22 clubs while there are about 1,200 registered ice hockey players.

There are also some players who do both sports. “Some like inline, but also like the glamour of ice hockey, but it’s way more expensive to play ice hockey,” Henry said.

Another cost point is travelling to international events, as most countries where the sport is practised are far away.

“We’re not big enough to pay everything. We manage to cover half of the cost and the players have to pay the other half,” said Henry.

“It costs several thousand dollars each to get to the World Championship. Many just finished study or started to work. There’s a number of players I would like to have brought with me, but they made themselves unavailable for work or money reasons.”

About half of the team has been at the IIHF InLine World Championship at least twice, while the other half consists of new players.

Zachary Beardman, one of the more experienced players at the event, confirms what it means to travel to Europe.

“It takes almost two days to get here, but you get it done. It’s expensive for us to play in international tournaments as we’re far away from the rest of the hockey world. Even to get to Australia is expensive,” Beardman said.

“It’s hard to get the same team every year. You have to spend a lot of money one year and then save to come back the next year. And you also have to get time off from work and family.”

To have more time to adjust to Germany, which is pretty much at the other end of the globe from New Zealand, the team travelled there earlier and played an exhibition game before going to a Bavarian festival with the host team.

There the New Zealanders also showcased the Haka, a dance from their indigenous Maori people that some sport teams (including ice hockey teams) do before games as a ritual.

“We did a Haka and there were many people who saw us and came to our game because of that and cheered us on,” Beardman said.

And who’s the best Haka dancer? Beardman immediately pointed to Lewis Taiapa. Joined by his younger brother Jensen, he’s one of the most experienced players with four participations. And he’s of Maori origin.

“It’s my culture. It’s like a team sort of thing. We do it as a group in many sports,” he said about the dance, also showing his tattoo.

Apart from that he doesn’t feel too different from others. People of both Maori and European descent are integrated well together in New Zealand’s society. More than in many other former colonies.

“It is a little bit different,” Taiapa said about his heritage. “We have our customs and ways to prepare food. It’s sort of a subculture in New Zealand.”

Taiapa and his teammates enjoy their time in Germany and also used the day off after the preliminary round to visit Munich.

“It’s really nice in Germany. The people are friendly, it’s well organized, the food is good, the hotel is good. Everybody is looking after us,” the 27-year-old forward said. “The German team is really nice too. We played a friendly game against them. They’re pretty cool.”

Taiapa’s debut came in 2007. A tournament he remembers well. It was also held in the German region of Bavaria, in Landshut and Passau.

“It was my first tournament. We played well and came back the year after. We were second,” said Taiapa.

“My most memorable moment was the first game. We played Hungary. They told us we’d never ever beat Hungary. Half of their team was of professional players. But then I scored the game-winning goal to help us win the first game. We celebrated like we had won the whole tournament. It was crazy. The Hungarians were looking at us and thought ‘What?’.”

It was a 9-8 victory that was followed by losses against Brazil and Australia in the preliminary round. But in the playoffs the Kiwis defeated Japan and Australia to reach a Division I gold medal meeting with Brazil that ended with a 5-4 overtime win for the South Americans.

Five years later the balance of power has changed in the Division I tournament. New Zealand defeated Japan, but lost to Hungary, Austria and Croatia. Now the Kiwis have to play to avoid relegation within the group of the bottom teams that also includes today’s opponent Japan as well as Australia and Bulgaria.

In the worst case they will have to go through a qualification tournament again to get back to the 2013 IIHF InLine Hockey World Championship Division I.

Germany eliminated defending champion Czech Republic in the quarter-finals in a 6-5 shootout victory. It was a game that went back and forth in which Michael Wolf scored two goals as did Felix Schütz including the shootout winner.

The talk before the game had been Edmonton Oilers forward Ales Hemsky joining the Czech team, but the son of coach Petr Hemsky couldn’t change for a better outcome for his team. It was the “old” players, who succeeded. Martin Vozdecky had a hat trick for the Czechs, but it was not enough against a German team cheered on by 3,062 fans at Ingolstadt’s Saturn Arena.

“It was a tough game, we’re pretty exhausted, but we wanted to reach the semi-finals so badly and we’ve done it,” said Thomas Greilinger, who also plays ice hockey for the local team ERC Ingolstadt as well as the German national ice hockey team.

“It was a great atmosphere. I’ve never seen that in any InLine Hockey World Championship I’ve been.”

At 4:06 it was the Germans who opened the scoring. Schütz did it after receiving a vertical pass from Christian Wichert. At 5:32 Wolf hit the post, but the next goal came on the other side when Vozdecky tied it up with a distance shot at 7:40.

At 9:51 Stefan Ortolf regained the lead for Germany when surprising Czech goalkeeper Roman Handl with a shot from the side boards just beside the face-off circle.

However, after 64 seconds in the second period it was again Vozdecky who tied the game for the Czechs. And three minutes later Tomas Demel capitalized on the first power play of the game to earn the Czech Republic the lead.

Germany reacted after the half-time break. After 14 seconds to be exactly. That’s when Wolf’s shot found the way into the net via a Czech defenceman for the 3-3 tie. And at 3:05 Greilinger even gained the lead for Germany on a man advantage. But midway through the period Vozdecky completed his hat trick to tie it up right after a German penalty had expired.

In the fourth quarter it took the Czechs 27 seconds to regain the lead. Zdenek Kubica scored in a two-on-one after a pass from Patrik Sebek. But the Germans reacted three minutes later. Wolf came from the right side and shot the puck into the top-right corner for the 5-5 goal.

The Czechs were closer to scoring the game-winning sixth goal in overtime. Among the scoring opportunities was a post shot by Vozdecky after 70 seconds. With one minute left in the extra time also a Germany player, Greilinger, hit the post. After his teammate Patrick Buzas saw his shot deflected in the last seconds, the game went to a penalty shootout.

After only two rounds the game was decided in Germany’s favour to the joy of the local crowd, who will see their team play Finland in the semi-finals tomorrow evening.

“Now we have to recover for tomorrow,” said Greilinger. “The tournament is well-balanced compared to previous years. We can defeat everybody, but we can also lose to anybody. But I think we have good chances to reach the final.”

USA vs. Finland 4-5 (1-0, 0-1, 1-4, 2-0)

Click here for the highlight video of the game.

Five-time world champion USA missed the semi-finals after a Finnish 5-4 victory in the third quarter-final of the day. The Finns gained momentum after the half-time break, building up a three-goal lead when Lasse Lappalainen scored two goals within a span of less than two minutes.

Charles Yoder and Travis Noe each scored a pair of goals for the Americans.

“It’s amazing, it’s hard to describe the feelings,” Lappalainen said. “We played well and we capitalized on our power plays. The Americans have many rookies this year, so we knew we would have a chance.”

At 8:20 captain Yoder was left alone on the left side and converted a horizontal pass to take the lead for the Americans. Two minutes later he kept the Finnish defence busy again, but his shot bounced back from the goal post.

At 3:43 of the second period Finland capitalized on a power play. Jesse Saarinen deflected a shot from Cami Miettinen that fit perfectly between goalkeeper Gerald Kuhn III and the post.

After the half-time break came the period of the Finns as they first gained the lead 80 seconds after the puck drop.

Lappalainen skated through the American defence until he found the gap in the net to beat Kuhn III. After that goal the Finns used the momentum. Lappalainen beat the American goalie again with a distance shot between the pads and Kristian Kuusela added another power-play goal at 4:19 for the 4-1 lead.

Yoder replied with his second goal at 5:40, but Miettinen made it 5-2 with another power-play goal at 10:48 to restore the three-goal lead going into the fourth quarter.

At 1:17 the Americans cut the lead when Noe capitalized on a man advantage. The deficit was only two goals with ten minutes remaining in regulation time.

The Americans went for it and Noe skilfully skated towards the Finnish net to cut the lead and make it a one-goal game with 2:24 left in regulation time, but it stayed as the last goal of the game for the pure joy of the Finns and as a disappointment for Team USA.

Sweden vs. Slovenia 3-4 (1-2, 1-0, 1-0, 0-1, 0-1) OT

Click here for the highlight video of the game.

The Slovenian sensation was perfect after 69 seconds of the extra period. Robert Sabolic just came back after his team had killed off his penalty, Matic Kralj’s pass reached him at centre ice and Sabolic skated towards Swedish netminder Sebastian Idoff for a deke before shooting the puck under the goalie’s body for the game-winning goal.

“I feel fantastic. It’s the first time we made the semi-finals,” Sabolic said. “We are so happy. It’s perfect. We really dreamed about the semi-finals and now we reached it.”

It was not a stolen win for the underdog, though. The Slovenes outshot Sweden 47-38 and took the lead twice (1-0, 2-1) during regulation time.

At 7:18 Alex Remar deked Idoff before beating him with a wrist shot, but Dick Axelsson tied it up one minute later with a slap shot on a man advantage.

With 1:54 left in the first period Domen Vedlin regained the lead for his team beating Idoff with a shot from a short angle coming from the right side.

The second period remained scoreless until Sweden tied it with 3:10 left. Marcus Nilsson scored after a great forward pass from Kristian Luukkonen.

With 1:29 left in the third period Axelsson scored his second goal on a power play from behind the face-off circle. It was the first time Sweden had taken the lead, but it didn’t last for long.

At 2:51 of the fourth quarter Kralj tied it at three beating Idoff on the near side of the net. And after the remainder of the period had been scoreless, it was him who set up Sabolic’s overtime-winning breakaway.

“We are ready,” Sabolic said about the semis. “We’re going to win. We’re going for the championship!”

Canada vs. Great Britain 9-3 (3-1, 1-0, 1-1, 4-1)

Click here for the highlight video of the game.

Team Canada wanted to send an early message and beleaguered the British goal with fast attacks early on. After an early 3-0 lead the team went on to win 9-3. Canada capitalized on four out of five power plays with Adam Ross and Thomas Woods each scoring a hat trick.

“They play a similar game to us with a lot of hard work. We knew that they were going to come out hard, so we wanted to stick to our game plan,” said Woods.

After less than four minutes of constant pressure Ross succeeded in beating British goalie James Tanner on a man advantage.

Canada continued with offensive action. Three minutes later Josh Foote doubled the lead with a shot in the top-right corner.

Two minutes later Woods deked British defenceman Karl Niamatali before scoring the third Canadian goal, but after 20 seconds the Brits reacted with Nathan Finney’s goal.

Canada continued having more dangerous attacks in the second period. After the post had saved the British twice, Woods skated alone towards the British goal from the right side to score the 4-1 goal at 5:50.

Richard Walsh cut the lead five minutes after the half-time break when he deflected a pass from Finney in front of the net on a man advantage, but with 35 seconds left in the third period Ross restored the three-goal lead on a power play.

At 2:37 of the fourth quarter Max Grassi scored another power-play goal to make it 6-2 for Canada and at 4:03 Jeff Lichimo opened up the gap to five goals when capitalizing on a rebound.

With 3:16 left in regulation time Ross completed his hat trick on a power play, but 14 seconds later Alex Pearman scored the third British goal of the game. With 63 seconds left Woods completed his hat trick too for the 9-3 final score.

“My whole team gave me a lot of passes and I was fortunate enough to put some into the net,” Woods said. “Our power play is hot right now after the chances we got.”

In a lopsided quarter-final Hungary needed some time until the scoring galore started. Norbert Fekecs opened the scoring at 8:33, but Stanislav Muhachov tied it up for Bulgaria 92 seconds into the second period.

Hungary reacted with three more goals before half-time and five goals in the third period to make everything clear. Arnold Feil was most successful with four goals.

Slovakia vs. Japan 14-0 (0-0, 5-0, 5-0, 4-0)

Favourite Slovakia faced little challenge against winless Japan. After a scoreless first period Peter Sojcik opened the scoring en route to a hat trick and a 14-0 win over the Asians.

Lukas Ruzicka also had a hat trick while Filip Novak and Roman Simunek each scored a pair of goals.

Austria vs. Australia 7-2 (2-1, 1-0, 1-1, 3-0)

After three tight periods Austria opened up the gap in the fourth quarter en route to a 7-2 victory over Australia.

Daniel Oberkofler opened the scoring with a shorthanded goal at 2:56, but Sean Jones tied it up for Australia 46 seconds later.

Peter Schweda, Oberkofler and Dominik Walchshofer extended the lead until midway through the game, but Jonathon Bremner’s 4-2 goal at 10:08 of the third period brought hope back for the team from Down Under.

In the fourth quarter, however, Austria made everything clear with three unanswered goals. Oberkofler scored a hat trick.

Croatia vs. New Zealand 5-0 (2-0, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0)

Croatia swept New Zealand 5-0 to advance to the semi-finals.

Vanja Belic earned the shutout with 22 saves while his teammates scored five goals out of 25 shots. Tomislav Cunko scored what became the game winner after less than four minutes of play and he also scored Croatia’s last goal in the dying minutes of the game. Mario Novak, Tomislav Grozaj and Marko Lovrencic netted the other goals for the Croats.

Hemsky scored 36 points (10+26) this season with the Edmonton Oilers, the team he’s been playing for since joining the NHL in 2002.

Most recently he also represented the Czech Republic in the 2012 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Helsinki and Stockholm where he contributed five goals and eight points in ten games en route to a bronze medal win.

]]>on leftInLineinline2012on left04 Czech RepublicNHLon rightTue, 05 Jun 2012 12:00:00 +0200Axelsson here for goldhttp://www.iihf.com/channels1112/inline/news/news-singleview-inline/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=7022
Swedish forward wants to improve – and win at InLine WorldsBoth players have scored four goals each so far, as did linemate Marcus Nilsson. That makes 12 out of 22 Swedish goals that were scored by this trio.

“It’s great to be back. Inline hockey is a very fun sport. It’s similar to ice hockey and a good summer sport,” said Axelsson, who returned to the team after missing last year’s event.

Boosted by the 25-year-old, Sweden hopes to get back on track after missing out a medal for the first time in nine years in 2011.

In his three previous participations, Axelsson took home two gold medals and a bronze.

“We want to win, that’s why we’re here,” said Axelsson, echoing many of his teammates. “We will play as hard as we can to win.”

The tall forward arrived in Ingolstadt after a tough first year with his new club MODO Örnsköldsvik. The second-round draft pick of the Detroit Red Wings had spent most of the last three years with Färjestad Karlstad before joining MODO.

“It was a disappointing season for me,” Axelsson said. “I was injured two times and played only 36 games. It was tough, but there’s a new season coming next.”

Axelsson is also a national team player in ice hockey where he has represented his country in 26 games, most recently in the preparation camp before the 2012 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship on home ice. But until now he has never made it to a World Championship or Olympic Games.

“I’m not that good,” he replies with a smile, “but I work on it every day. I hope I’ll make the team at some point, but there are many good players in Sweden, so it’s hard.”

Working on his skills is also one reason, apart from the fun and winning component, why he’s here. He hopes that playing inline hockey at this level will help his development as a player.

“I hope it will make me a better player. I try to work on a lot of things here like stickhandling,” he said.

But first comes the next game. Tre Kronor will play Slovenia this afternoon in the quarter-finals. Last year the Swedes had the same opponent and won 6-2 after trailing 2-0, but lost the two following games and ending up in fourth place.

This time the Swedes want to continue their tradition of medalling at the InLine Hockey World Championship.

After the preliminary-round play, the odds are on a USA-Sweden final, although many things can happen in the two upcoming days as the many tight games in the first three days have shown.

And Axelsson has different ideas anyway.

“I hope to play in the final against Germany, that would be fun,” he said in an allusion to the atmospheric crowd in Ingolstadt.

Dresden is the capital of the state of Saxony with approximately 520,000 inhabitants and it’s a centre of art, architecture, music and sports in the eastern part of Germany.

Teams will be served through the international airport in Dresden that can be reached through direct flights or with connecting flights via Frankfurt or Munich. The next bigger airports are Berlin and Prague.

The local host will be the city’s ice sports club ESC Dresden, whose ice hockey team Eislöwen (ice lions) plays in Germany’s second league.

The club was founded in 1992 after the German re-unification because the government endorsed ice hockey in only two cities in East Germany during most of the DDR era. The club has now 500 members.

The Energie Verbund Arena was built in 2007. It has 4,127 seats in the main arena and there’s a second rink with a capacity for 300 spectators. The arena was also used as one of the venues for the 2011 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 World Championship.

The 2014 IIHF InLine Hockey World Championship will be staged in Pardubice, Czech Republic, after the city 100 kilometres east of Prague successfully hosted the event in 2011.

Finland intends to apply for hosting the 2015 IIHF InLine Hockey World Championship in Tampere.